King Cricket

September 22, 2016 County cricket

Yorkshire don the special MacGuffin gloves

2 minute readWe can’t help but feel that our coverage of the denouement of the County Championship is getting a little niche. In the previous instalment of our four-day mud-slithering analogy, Yorkshire had lost ground to Middlesex and Somerset because they for some reason needed to go and pick something up before

September 21, 2016 County cricket

County Championship Permutation Watch: Everyone needs to win

< 1 minute readPretty much. That’s the gist anyway. If Middlesex beat Yorkshire, they will win the County Championship If Yorkshire make 350 in their first innings and also beat Middlesex, they will win the County Championship Somerset need to win as a bare minimum. They then need neither of the above scenarios

September 21, 2016 County cricket

Bum end of the table update

< 1 minute readCan’t be bothered doing the maths, but it’s looking like Lancashire might be the ones slipping into second division invisibility and inconsequence next season. Before this last round of matches, Lancs needed quite a lot to go against them to be relegated. And lo, it came to pass. They’re currently

September 20, 2016 County cricket

Nick Gubbins claws at the filthy damp earth

< 1 minute readIf Middlesex, Yorkshire and Somerset were represented by three individuals face down in mud, slithering towards a MacGuffin, we’d have the Middlesex bloke half a yard ahead after the first day’s play in the final round of matches. Nick Gubbins has offset the pantsness of his team-mates and hauled his

September 19, 2016 County cricket

Who needs to do what to win the County Championship?

< 1 minute readIt’s the last round of the County Championship and three teams could win it: Middlesex, Yorkshire and Somerset. We rather like the ‘there’s been a bonus point at Taunton which changes EVERYTHING!’ chaos of a close finish in this competition, but if you don’t enjoy the baffled-surprise emotion quite as

September 18, 2016 County cricket

County cricket’s spin ecosystem

2 minute readIn recent years there has been much talk about how county cricket hasn’t been producing spin bowlers. A corollary of this is that county batsmen have been facing less spin. With just a bit of a nudge, the latter becomes something that can be exploited. This year in the County

September 17, 2016 County cricket

Jonathan Trott and no ice age

< 1 minute readA lot of you will have assumed that England’s domestic 50-over competition had been and gone. The group stages barely outlasted July and the semi-finals took place three weeks ago. The final, however, was scheduled for the arse end of the season, long after anyone could remember what preceded it.

September 16, 2016 England

Why England have selected Gareth Batty

2 minute read“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” At the age of 38, we have genuinely never been fitter in our entire life. We had however assumed that our chance of playing international cricket had passed. Not so! Almost as if England were Australia and Gareth

September 16, 2016 Extras

This is not about the England squad for the Bangladesh tour

< 1 minute readWe can’t remember what time our own email goes out. Is it 11am? We could just check the timestamp on an old one, we suppose – but who’s honestly got time to do that? We suspect it’s actually 10am, but on the offchance it’s an hour later, here’s a link

September 14, 2016 Extras

I Don’t Like Cricket, I Hate It – the city-based T20 edition

3 minute readA semi-regular feature in which we ask Prince Prefab about cricket – even though he hates cricket. We are in bold. Prince Prefab is not. We were talking about fat cricketers last time around. It was pointed out to us that the team that won this year’s T20 competition ‘likes